Intellectual Property and the Information Economy

Abstract

The pundits who prophesied that the Internet would mean the end of intellectual property were wrong.¹ Intellectual property is alive and well on the Internet. Copyrights, trademarks, and lately even patents are the subjects of vigorous, and increasingly successful, enforcement efforts. From high-tech start-up profiles to law-firm hiring patterns, the evidence suggests that protection of online intellectual property is a growth industry. But this is not, to borrow a turn of phrase, your father’s intellectual property. This intellectual property is different. Traditional intellectual property rights, which were limited monopolies operating in distinct and different subject areas, have been retrofitted to become sophisticated, mutually reinforcing methods of controlling information use.